Workington Comets beat Edinburgh Monarchs at the GT Tyres Arena in Northside last night.
But they had left themselves too much to do for the bonus point after a 20-point gap in the first leg.
It finished 47-43 to the Comets with the Monarchs winning 98-82 on aggregate.
The fact that the Comets riders only had six heat wins and ran six lasts, meant the aggregate point was always going to stay out of reach.
They didn’t get in front on the night until heat 10 with a 5-1 from Fraser Bowes and Troy Batchelor gave them a 31-29 advantage.
It helped that Bowes and Batchelor made the best gates of the night and produced some excellent team riding to keep out Edinburgh’s Justin Sedgmen.
That was actually the first of four heat maximums in five heats and it gave the Comets an eight-point advantage.
But the tables were turned in the penultimate heat when Jonatan Grahn and Paco Castagne collected a 5-1.
Castagne did particularly well to stay ahead of Jye Etheridge who was trying everything to get past.
The last heat finished all square as this time Grahn won again but was followed in by Batchelor and Antti Vuolas.
During this hectic back-to-back-to-back fixture weekend, Comets are at Oxford tonight (6pm) when they will be bidding to at least hold onto their eight point lead from the home leg.
- Workington Comets 47: Troy Batchelor 10+2; Fraser Bowes 5+2; Tate Zischke 10; Jye Etheridge 6+3; Antti Vuolas 11+1; Jacob Hook 5+1; Vinnie Foord 0.
- Edinburgh Monarchs 43: Victor Palovaara 1; Paco Castagna 11+1; Justin Sedgmen 3+1; Michael Palm Toft 3; Kye Thomson 8; Jonatan Grahn 13; Jordy Loftus 4+2.
